Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research (ISSN : 0975-7384)

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Original Articles: 2015 Vol: 7 Issue: 8

Analysis of airborne microfungi in indoor environments of different hotels in Pondicherry city

Abstract

The fungal spores are unanimous in their distribution found indoors and outdoors of the hotel environment and constitute the major portion of the suspended bioparticulate matter in the air. An aeromycological survey of the two indoor sites viz., Kitchen and the Dining hall of five different hotels in Pondicherry city were carried out by employing volumetric Burkard’s personal sampler using SDA mediated petridishes during 2015. Air samplings were made at intervals for isolating the prevalent fungi from the study sites in between 10 AM to 1PM. In total,10 media plates were utilized during the study period and altogether, 29 fungal species under 14 genera were isolated, among which Aspergillus sp. were recorded as the dominant followed by Penicillium sp. The prevalence of spores was found more in the Kitchen in comparison to the Dining hall of the hotels. Besides Aspergillus, other fungi like Absidia, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Fusarium, Monascus, Mucor, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Trichoderma, Verticillium and Wallemia were also recorded. The analysis of data indicated that concentration of airborne fungi in the two indoor sites mostly in Kitchen and Dining hall of the Hotel is very high and quite variable depending on the climatic conditions and substrate availability. The allergenic spores of Aspergillus and Penicillium were found to be predominant, probably due to their wide host range, substrate adaptability and opportunistic nature. The variation of the fungal types was highly related to the availability of the substrate precipitation needed for the fungal growth. The occupational variations and climatic alteration had positive/negative influence on occurrence of aeromycoflora in the indoor environments of the hotels studied herewith.